Attack the King Side? Close the center!

This week I’ve reached 2000 ELO rapid and 1900 ELO blitz on lichess, and I started playing many games I enjoyed more than usual.

This was one of them.

1. Nf3 c5 

2. d4 cxd4 

3. Nxd4 Nc6 

4. Nc3 Nf6 

5. b3 e6 

6. Bb2 Bb4 

7. a3 Ba5 

8. e3 O-O 

Already, a very particular line: white has a fianchettoed dark square bishop in the sicilian defense. That won’t happen very often.

9. Be2 d5 

10. O-O Re8 

11. b4 Bc7 

12. Ndb5 Bb8 

My purpose is preserving the bishop pair in order to make it fully operational afterwards.

13. Nd4 e5 

14. Nxc6 bxc6 

Now I have a very nice center, and I can start getting my pieces closer to the king side.

15. Na4 Ne4 

16. Bf3 Ng5 

17. Nc5 Nxf3+ 

18. Qxf3 Qg5 

19. Rfd1 e4 

Closing the center, the white queen must retreat behind the pawn chain because my bishops conveniently control all the king side available squares.

20. Qe2 Bh3 

21. g3 h5 

22. Re1 h4 

23. Nb3 Re6 

24. Nd4 Rg6 

25. Rac1

In this position, there is a mate in 6, enjoy trying to find it before I show my continuation!

 

25. Rac1 hxg3 

26. hxg3 Bxg3 

27. fxg3 Qxg3+

28. Kh1 Bg2+ 

29. Kg1 Bf3+ 

30. Kf1 Qg1# 0-1

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